CHAPTER X.
CANVAS CANOES.
Like all inhabitants of islands, we early turned our attention to navigation. Our scow was serviceable for transporting materials back and forth across the strips of shallow water between our quarters and the Jersey shore. We never attempted to row across, because progress would have been entirely too slow, and we would have drifted down to the rapids long ere we could reach the opposite side. But on Lake Placid matters were different. Although there was no settlement near us on the Pennsylvania shore, to occasion our crossing the water for provisions and the like, yet the quiet stretch was admirably suited to boating for pleasure, and mighty little pleasure could we get out of our heavy scow.
Uncle Ed’s Departure.
Owing to a sudden business call Uncle Ed left us after he had been with us nearly three weeks. But, before going, he explained carefully to Bill just how to construct a canvas canoe. Jack, the cook, who was anxious to lay in a second supply of provisions, accompanied Uncle Ed as far as Millville, the next town below Lamington. Here Uncle Ed bought five yards of canvas, 42 inches wide, several cans of paint and a quantity of brass and copper nails and tacks. These supplies, together with the food provisions that Jack had collected, were brought to us late in the afternoon by Mr. Schreiner. Mr. Schreiner also brought the necessary boards and strips of wood for the framework of our canoe.
A Visit from Mr. Schreiner.
We invited Mr. Schreiner to spend the night with us, and this he did after fording with some difficulty the swift-running river. In the morning we showed him our quarters, our filter, the roads we had built, the spar bridge across to Kite Island, our surveying instrument and the chart we had made of the vicinity. He was greatly pleased with our work, and it was then that he gave us an order for the bridge over the gorge. From that day on he became our staunchest ally, so that when my father and Mr. Van Syckel complained that we were loafing away a lot of time which could be more profitably spent in study or work, Mr. Schreiner stood up for us and declared that our experiences on the island were doing us far more good, both physically and mentally, than any other work that they could conceive of; that before condemning us they should pay us a visit and see how we were employing our time.
The Sailing Canoe.
Exploring the River in the Indian Canoe.